Chapter 4 Entering the Palace
After coming out of Dou's room, Li Jiancheng walked to the study in the front yard, where a middle-aged steward was waiting. He was the second steward of Duke Tang's Mansion. There was no master in the mansion now, so he had to come to the villa to report every few days.

Originally, the madam was in charge of the general affairs, but recently she has not been able to see anyone and needs to rest more, so she has no choice but to report these trivial matters to the eldest son.

Li Jiancheng invited him to sit down, as he was an old man in the mansion. The steward thanked him but declined the offer. He stood still and talked about all the trivial matters in the mansion in the past few days. He also handed the young man a list of items to be purchased in the next few days, as this would cost some money from the public treasury.

The main thing he needed to buy was some fabrics and cloth. The New Year was approaching, and there were two or three hundred servants in the mansion and the annex buildings, so they all needed new winter clothes. The rest was to prepare some New Year's goods.

Li Jiancheng nodded in agreement after looking at it. He was not very clear about the prices. After all, with his status, he rarely had to buy things in person. But he remembered the amount of money he reported during the Chinese New Year last year, and it was just a few strings of cash short.

It is now the Kaihuang period. The whole country is peaceful, the number of registered households has increased greatly, the warehouses are well stocked, and the price fluctuations are very small.

After finishing the trivial matters, the steward whispered the news that the young master had specifically asked him to inquire about: "There was news from the palace yesterday that the emperor had favored a palace maid."

After he finished speaking, the steward couldn't help but say, "This is what I heard from the third steward of the Duke of Qi's Mansion. It should be correct, but I feel it's fake. The emperor and the empress have been in love for many years, and your majesty is approaching sixty, why is he still..."

The long-awaited opportunity finally appeared, and Li Jiancheng asked, "The King of Jin will soon return to Chang'an, right?"

The steward replied, "Your Majesty summoned the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Han back to the capital last month, so it should be soon."

After making simple arrangements for the affairs of the villa, Li Jiancheng went to pay a personal visit to his grandmother, then mounted his horse and galloped towards the capital under the protection of a dozen family generals.

Today, the capital of the Sui Dynasty is actually called Daxing City. It was built in the second year of Kaihuang seventeen years ago. It is not far from the old Chang'an City, so people are still accustomed to calling the capital Chang'an.

In front of the wide and flat Anhua city gate, civilians carrying luggage lined up in groups of two or three, and a group of merchants pulled large and small carts, among which there were also many Hu people and Western merchants.

They were all queuing up in an orderly manner waiting for inspection by the city soldiers. Li Jiancheng naturally did not need to do that, and he didn't even need his family generals to go up and greet them. The leading city general had already ordered his men to make way when he saw Li Jiancheng's appearance.

Li Jiancheng bowed and signaled to drive his horse in. The other retainers dismounted and followed behind, holding the reins. A retainer with a scar on his face handed his horse to the person beside him and stepped forward to hold the horse of his husband.

"Da Lang, shall we go back home first?"

"Let the rest of you go back first. Uncle Zhao will accompany me to the palace. I want to pay my respects to the queen."

"Yes." Zhao Da turned around and ordered, "Everyone disperse."

The family generals who followed behind responded. These people were the second, third or even fourth generation of Li family generals. Their fathers and grandfathers had followed the old pillar of the country or the former Duke of Tang and fought for the cause of the Li family all their lives.

Therefore, they do not have to engage in production since childhood and only need to concentrate on practicing martial arts and mastering archery and horse riding.

If you ask what the biggest feeling is after entering Chang'an, it is that the road is really wide. The road that Li Jiancheng is walking on now is not as wide as Zhuquemen Street, which is 150 meters wide, but it is also 50 to 60 meters wide. There are many people coming and going, occasionally there are dignitaries driving, and there are also two groups of young nobles who are familiar with him, leading their servants, riding horses and carrying bows, preparing to go hunting outside the city. When they saw Li Jiancheng, they excitedly came over to say hello and wanted to take him with them.

But Li Jiancheng declined all of them on the grounds that he had work to do for his grandmother, and changed the appointment to the next time.

When they arrived at the Hanguang Gate of the imperial city, Li Jiancheng dismounted. His status and position were only enough to allow him to ride a horse in the city, but he was still far from being able to ride a horse or take a carriage into the imperial city.

The imperial city is the location of ancestral temples and military and political institutions. The main buildings in the city include the Taimiao, Taishe, and the palaces of the Six Ministries, Nine Temples, and Eighteen Guards. Among them, the Taimiao and Taishe are located in the southeast and southwest respectively, in accordance with the system of "ancestor on the left and community on the right".

The palace is not a place where ordinary people can enter. The supervision is much stricter than that of the city gate. If you want to come in, you need to be an official or be summoned. One thing I have to mention here is my father, Lord Li Yuan. He is currently famous for two things.

One is character. He is willful and frank, generous and tolerant, and can please everyone, regardless of their status. In other words, he is free and easy, cheerful, and tolerant, and can please everyone, regardless of their status.

The other was his superb archery skill. When the Duke of Shenwu and the eldest princess wanted to choose a son-in-law for their daughter, they ordered people to paint two peacocks on a screen and place it dozens of steps away. They gave two arrows to the young military meritorious man who came. One of the arrows had to hit one of the peacock's eyes to be qualified to become the son-in-law of the Dou family.

Dou was a noble lady who was famous for her beauty and intelligence since she was young. Many top nobles almost broke down the door of the Dou family in order to find a virtuous wife for their sons.

The Duke of Shenwu had to resort to this tactic, otherwise if he chose one of his own, he would offend many of his old brothers.

The result is naturally self-evident. After seven or eight young men were defeated in succession, Li Yuan came on the scene and shot two arrows steadily into the peacock's eyes. He won the beauty and was chosen as the first one among the peacocks. It became a good story.

With a noble family background, a good personality and excellent skills, he will undoubtedly be welcomed everywhere. When Lord Li Yuan was in Beijing, he made many good friends inside and outside the palace. The one guarding the palace gate today was one of them. Li Jiancheng was spared the trouble and was able to go in directly.

Li Jiancheng thanked him politely. As the other person had his job to do, he could not say much. But he turned around and told Zhao Da to pick out two jars of good wine from his cellar and send them to him when he returned home.

When he arrived at the palace, people coming and going were all officials in official robes. Occasionally, he would meet a few who recognized Li Jiancheng. He would immediately stop and greet them, looking very well-behaved.

Those people also indulged in the desire to act like elders. When their colleagues came to ask, they would loudly introduce Li Jiancheng's identity. Especially when they learned that he was going to deliver a letter to the Queen Mother, they could not stop praising him, but they did not dare to delay him any longer.

It took half an hour to pay respects and greet everyone along the way. Li Jiancheng also had a new understanding of his father's popularity. When he arrived at Yong'an Gate in front of the imperial city and wanted to ask someone to inform the empress and request an audience, the empress had already received the news and sent someone to pick him up.

From this we can see the Queen's control over the palace. Li Jiancheng thanked the female official who came to greet him, then followed with his head down, feeling somewhat uneasy. Although there would be no actual loss if the marriage failed, he would only be able to hold the rank of a sixth or seventh official for more than a decade.

After all, without special circumstances, the imperial court generally would not allow a son's rank to surpass that of his father, and it would even be impossible to be too close.

…………

(End of this chapter)